Darragh Wrathe

Well it's only been a few days since my last post but I just couldn't wait any longer. This model comes in two parts; one is a mounted version of the character the other is a dismounted version. The idea is that once he "dies" he becomes a dismounted version of himself, basically giving him two lives. He seems pretty useful as well, I just haven't used him enough to review him. On to the painting aspect! The whole reason for getting this model is how cool it looks. The mounted part at least. I think the dismounted version is a bit lacking, and the pose is not really to my liking. I painted this guy for the journeymen league though and since I was stretched for time I opted to not convert him. I do like the way he turned out after painting though. The toxic water effect on his base turned out to be one of my better blending jobs too. Perhaps a few more coats of gloss over the surface would do nicely.

Dark Angels

So I went on vacation very recently and one of the places I visited was the first game store I used to buy miniatures at. I also visited some friends who still paint minis themselves, which got me to thinking about my old space marines from the 90's. Here is the extent of what I had painted, back when green flock was cool. Man these things are dusty and old. Anyway this is for those of you who recognize these guys.

Bane Thralls and Bane Lord Tartarus

 Well I've waited a while to post these up. Now that I have a complete set of photos, here they are. The Bane Thralls seem to be one of the most powerful units in the Cryx faction and the game of Warmachine itself. They are beastly in close combat and they have a couple of things that help them get there quickly and unscathed.
Model wise I'm liking how they turned out however, I'm just not 100% done with them yet. Seems to be the case with all of these models that after pictures I decide to highlight them a little further. The standard bearer also needs a design or something on his standard. Just not sure what to put. There are a few symbols in the Cryx book that would work, if anyone reading this knows the symbols I'm talking about, I could use a suggestion or two. Another thing I'm considering is using some Forge World rust weathering powder on the armor in very small amounts to add some depth. And it might break up their flat dark look. That would take a test model that might get ruined in the process so maybe I won't. At any rate these guys have been quite a crutch for me in my last 10-15 games. It will be interesting to start playing without them again.

The Withershadow Combine

Well I've been resisting posting for a bit trying to get some more pictures taken but finding little time to do it. I thought I might be dry on material but came across these and realized I hadn't posted them up yet. I've still got quite a few painted pieces to post but waiting for other photos to do some pairings, example: Bane Thralls and Bane Lord Tartarus are waiting for pics of their unit attachment so I can post them all together.
Anyway, here is my Withershadow Combine. They have been painted using methods outlined in previous posts. I'm not entirely pleased with the way they look, they have an unfinished look to them and I believe it's because of the lack of contrast on their robes. I've also been very unsatisfied with my Krylon matte varnish, it seems to have quite a shine to it. I think I'll have to add these to the touch up and re-varnish list. I might think about adding some color to them too, just to bring a bit more "life" to them. Who knows, any suggestions are appreciated.

Witch Coven of Garlghast and Egregore

Here is my first painted alternate warcaster. I've got a few others to try out but no paint on them yet. So far I've enjoyed a dark colorless paint scheme for my Cryx. These witches are no different however their robes are actually a really dark green color (P3 Cryx bane base) and it's a bit hard to tell by looking at the picture. I've been told I should highlight a bit more on my darker areas so they don't look unfinished. I think I may go back over all of them one of these days and give it a shot.
Anyway, I used my standard methods to paint this set. The only thing different is the liquid darkness type stuff pouring out of the Egregore. I wanted it to shine like a liquid so I went over it with Citadel gloss varnish after the model was done. The whole effect was shaped with green stuff around a piece of metal from a clothes hangar. It's not exactly what I was going for but it does look kinda cool, almost like a black pudding or sludge pouring out of him.
One other thing I am considering is adding a few tufts of dead grass to all of the models I've done for Cryx so far. I didn't want to do it at first, thinking they would be coming from a toxic wasteland where nothing grows, but the plainness of the basses is starting to bother me. Let me know what you think I should do.

Cryx Battlegroup

Well here we have the Cryx battlegroup or battlebox. This box is a great way to start a Cryx force as you get Warwitch Deneghra, a Slayer Helljack, a Defiler Bonejack and two Deathripper Bonejacks.

So when I first picked up this set I had no idea what was good or bad or even how to play Warmachine. As a result I magnetized the arms on the Slayer thinking they would be removed if he took arm damage. Turns out there is really no need to magnetize him unless you get a conversion kit or the plastic warjack kit. Now if you do want to get the warjack kit make sure to magnetize the Slayers head and the arms where the ball socket of the shoulder meets the forearm. The warjack kit has different heads and forearms to create three different warjacks. My Slayer is magnetized at the shoulder meets body because I didn't know before assembly where to put the magnets. On a side note, when I got my warjack kit I didn't bother to magnetize at all and built a Reaper with it, I'm quickly learning that heavyjacks are not really my style of play. 

Some close ups of the Slayer and Defiler. I'm just going to list the paints used for these ones since I haven't changed any of my techniques.
Base colors:
P3 Cryx Bane Base, P3 Blighted Gold, P3 Necrotite Green, P3 Jack Bone, Citadel Chaos Black, Citadel Boltgun Metal, Model Colour Iraqi Sand (Deneghra's skin).
Washes:
Citadel Badab Black, Citadel Gryphonne Sepia, Citadel Ogryn Flesh, a mixture of P3 Necrotite Green and Citadel Skull White.
Highlight/Drybrush:
P3 Cryx Bane Highlight, Citadel Burnished Gold, Citadel Mithril Silver, Citadel Skull White, Citadel Astronomican Grey, Citadel Adeptus Battlegrey.

Bloat Thrall

 Well here is the miniature that got me into Cryx. The Bloat Thrall, he has a cannon that shoots an area affecting blast of corrosive sludge, and he explodes when he dies.
I started off using black primer and base coating all the large areas. For the skin I used P3 thrall flesh, for the metal; Citadel boltgun metal and some P3 blighted gold. For the tubing P3 cryx bane base.
I began my washing phase by mixing up a red glaze using Model Color dark red. This glaze was added to the stitching areas and all the areas where flesh meets metal. After that I used Citadel ogryn flesh over the skin parts. The red glaze was visible enough after the ogryn flesh that I was happy with it and continued on.

 I washed the metallic parts with Citadel badab black and even put a tiny bit in the stitching just to give more definition to the details. I also washed over the tubing with badab black.
With all the major areas dry I started drybrushing and highlighting. The metals were highlighted/drybrushed with Citadel mithril silver and Citadel burnished gold respectively. The flesh was brushed with thrall flesh to reclaim some of the raised spots and the stitches highlighted with Model Color germ. ww2 beige camouflage. The green goo was wet blended using Model Color ss. cam. bright green and Model Color lime green. The base was lightly brushed with Citadel adeptus battlegrey and Citadel astronomican grey. The model was finished with Krylon matte finish and then Citadel gloss varnish was painted onto the goo.

Overall it was a really quick and easy model to paint. Most of the surfaces lack detail and are very easy to get to with a brush. The only tricky part was painting his underside before fixing him to the base. On the subject of his base, I had to drill a few holes where the ends of his legs were going to be so they would set into them. This model is all metal and pretty heavy so unless you are fixing him to a terrain piece you might need to find a way to strengthen his contact points. So far the little holes I drilled have worked without incident.

Bile Thralls

Well here is the next installment of mechanical undead for my Cryx army. Bile thralls have sludge guns that spray corrosive goo at the enemy, they can also purge their entire load in one go killing themselves and hitting everything in front of them.
These guys were painted in the same fashion as the mechanithralls were with very few differences. First I used black primer on these as I had run out of white primer. Second I painted their faces with a drybrush of citadel skull white to give a more ghostly dead look. Lastly I added two toxic sludge pools to the bases even though these bases are pretty small, I think the effect came out looking pretty good.

Mechanithralls and Brute Thrall

Well I recently started painting some Warmachine minis for the journeyman league. Warmachine / Hordes is brand new to me so I have a lot to paint. Anyhow, I started it off with a unit of six mechanithralls joined by a brute thrall.

 For primer I chose white thinking I would need lighter tones on the flesh. It worked well enough but the last four of these guys I do will be black primer. The reason for this is simply because I ran out of white primer. I  started my bile thralls with black and they look a little better so the last four mechanithralls will be very slightly different.
I started out by base coating the whole miniature. P3 thrall flesh, P3 cryx bane base, Citadel boltgun metal and Model Color dark red. I then mixed up a dark red glaze that I brushed over all of the sores and bits of flesh that connect to machinery. While the glaze was drying I washed the metal bits and tubing with Citadel badab black. I went back to the flesh with a wash of Citadel ogryn flesh. With washes and glazing done I went back over the raised metal bits with boltgun metal then a highlight of Citadel mithril silver. The flesh was gone back over with thrall flesh to even it out a bit. The tubing was highlighted with P3 cryx bane highlight. The eyes were filled with P3 necrotite green. The glowing effects on the brute thrall were done with necrotite green and Citadel skull white, I did this so many times trying to get the right effect on his fists that it just looks terrible now. The only thing I could really do would be strip the paint off and start over but I have other models to work on so maybe in the future.
Finally the bases were done to reflect the land these guys come from which I envision as a dark lifeless wasteland. Black charred earth with radioactive pools of nastiness, nothing grows there at all. So I went with Citadel chaos black base, highlighted with Citadel adeptus battlegrey and Citadel astronomican grey. The pool was wet blended with Citadel dark angel's green and Model Color ss. cam. bright green and Model Color lime green. After sealing them with matte varnish I painted on some Citadel gloss varnish to make it look wet and shiny.

Magnetizing Miniatures

Welcome to my first beginner tutorial. Here I'm going to show you some tricks and ideas regarding magnets and your miniatures. This tutorial is intended for beginners or those returning to the hobby after a long pause. There are many benefits to magnetizing your miniatures, hopefully I can cover most of them.

First you will need some magnets!

This type of magnet is easily obtained at any craft store, usually under 10 dollars too. It's flexible and easy to cut with scissors. It comes rolled up in a mat and is intended for refrigerator art. It makes a great movement tray magnet since you can cut it to fit your trays.






These rare earth magnets are available on the web through many different online stores. I bought mine from K&J Magnetics at the recommendation of a friend. I would also like to recommend them myself. These magnets are very strong and come in all shapes and sizes. They make great magnets to go under your miniature's base. They are also small enough to use for attachments to vehicle sized models.





One of the many benefits of magnetizing your models comes from games like warhammer fantasy where you will use a  large formation of plastic miniatures. They seem to get knocked over when bumped or shake and fall off of your movement tray while you are moving them around. Even a loose sleeve brushing the top of your unit while you grab your dice can disrupt the flow of a game. Here is how we fix the problem. Take your movement tray, primer and paint the edges how you will like them to look, then cut a piece of magnet to fit it. Spread some glue on the tray and set the magnet in. I like to use a large miniature base to flatten the magnet out while the glue is drying. Also, I find that using regular super glue works pretty well. Stay away from the elmers type glues, they take too long to dry and squeeze too much excess out from under the magnet. Another tip; make sure the magnet part is facing up. 




Next we need some of our rare earth magnets, our miniatures and some greenstuff. Any modelling putty will probably work just fine, I used greenstuff with mine and it worked very well. 

I like to set my magnets up in a stack on any metal object close at hand. This way they are all facing the same direction and I can pull them off one at a time. If you are using these magnets in a fashion where they will be contacting each other then you must keep them going the same direction.

Here is the bottom of one of my rank and file miniatures. I started with a blob of greenstuff that I rolled into a long rope. From that rope I cut off a tiny amount and stick it to the bottom of the base. I then take one magnet off the top of the stack and stick it to the putty. From here I carefully press the miniature down on a flat clean non-metallic surface like this fake wooden desk you see in the picture. Pressing it down slowly doesn't warp the putty and flushes the magnet to the table top. I let mine dry like this, no glue needed.

 And there it is, strong enough to hold the miniature upside down. I've done this with many plastic infantry, metal infantry and some plastic cavalry. For the metal infantry one magnet is still enough to hold your figure in place on the tray and even hold it upside down if you don't shake. I would recommend two magnets, one on each corner if you intend to handle the tray roughly. For plastic cavalry I used two magnets on opposing corners to firm them up as the models are quite a bit larger than infantry.


The next benefit of magnetizing your models is probably one of the best things you can do with your larger models. Making swappable parts. Bought a tank that comes with multiple different turrets? How about that valkyrie you bought that you wish was a vendetta? This will save you lots of money if you like to change your equipment a lot.

These rare earth magnets are very strong so even the tiny ones are of great use in miniature wargaming. Here is a picture of missile pods, lascannons and multilasers for the  valkyrie/vendetta. Instead of gluing one option together then buying another kit for the second option you can attach magnets to their contact points. Given how small these are you can even drill or carve out a spot to sink the magnet into your part. Just make sure they are all the same direction and will attract to the magnet you want to stick them to.

Here you can see I've filled the back of the weapon compartment with greenstuff and stuck a magnet on it. In the photo above the multilazer and lascannon both have magnets glued to their backs that match up with this compartment. I can swap them out as I see fit, no need to buy two kits. In order to make everything flush I first filled the compartment with putty then glued a magnet to my weapon. I then stuck a second magnet to the first. Then I carefully pressed the weapon into the compartment and let it dry. After it was dry I pulled the weapon out of the compartment and that was it, one magnet stuck in the putty the other glued to the weapon. To add a different weapon just stick a magnet on the one inside the compartment and dab a bit of super glue on the back of it. Then stick the new weapon into the compartment and wait for it to dry. Once dried it should come out and have the glued magnet stuck to the back of it.

 These last two photos show the weapon pods hanging on the wings. I used one magnet for each item on this miniature as it is strong enough. An added benefit of having one magnet is that your hanging weapon pods can rotate 360 degrees. If you want them completely fixed you need to put two magnets on them or devise something to keep them in place. Mine don't swing around on their own however, so the option is nice to position the model in different directions for pictures or dioramas.

A few other nice things about magnetizing your vehicles is when you have operational doors, turrets, arms, hatches or guns that you want to keep operational after painting. Instead of choosing a pose, fixing it then painting it you can just magnetize and paint then reposition to your heart's content. This model for example has all the weapons you have seen, two side doors that open allowing door gunners to pop out and a ramp that pops down on the back. Also in warhammer 40k you can easily keep track of weapon destroyed results on the vehicle damage chart.

Some of the other ideas I have seen or heard of include making magnetic counters for various reasons. Perhaps you have some pretty cool spell counters specific to certain units (throne of vines anyone?), while the spell is active you have some cool thing stuck to part of the miniature. Or perhaps you are using a multiple wound model and hate having to keep a dice next to it at all times. You can magnetize some counters to keep track of the number of wounds it has remaining. If these are cleverly tied into it's base then all the better. Just make sure your opponent can easily see how many counters are left. Another idea was for transportation of your armies. Take something like a metal filing cabinet drawer and stick your figures all to the walls. As long as you don't drop the box and keep your metal figures on the bottom they should be perfectly fine when you get to your destination. That is all for now, hope this helps.

Bretonnian Tactics

"Military tactics, the art of organizing an army, are the techniques for using weapons or military units in combination for engaging and defeating an enemy in battle." (Carl *Clausewitz: On War, 1832)

I posted this tactica up on www.roundtable-bretonnia.org about 3-4 months ago. Since I'm trying to showcase my army painting and progression I felt it appropriate to post up here too. I've put together some of the units I use and a few tactical points to go with them. This is just my take on building lists with what I have available and like to use. I don't presume that these combos can handle every situation either. Just thought someone might be interested in seeing how I use the army. Maybe this will help some beginners, maybe not.

My thoughts on bretonnia...

The first thing I like to do when getting into a new list is get a feel for the tactics of the army. The big three being; shooting, magic, and close combat. The real gems in my opinion are the lists that can mix all three aspects. For bretonnians we are blessed with a solid choice in all three. This gives us a lot of flexibility when building a list and opens up more tactical options than some other army books have available. I believe that mixed lists that can capitalize on every phase are the best lists. If you have no magic, then you have no magic defense. If you have no shooting then you are forced to race across the battlefield to minimize casualties. If you are poor in close combat, well that's going to break any army. Magic is a bit too random and power dice are too limited to make an all magic list. All shooting armies are at a disadvantage now with the increase in movement (no march blocking, larger charge distances). All combat lists can be effective but may suffer from big nasty spells and artillery fire, and your opponent forcing you to come to them. Any two of the big three can be combined to make a solid list, I prefer to try and mix all three.

When selecting units to use I first think about what their primary role will be, what they will excel at. Then I think of a secondary role, something they will have moderate success with. When looking through the entries in the book it quickly becomes apparent that in order to excel at anything a lot of our units need specialized characters to join them. They may also require other units to support them. Some of my units and combinations:

The horde anvil of men at arms. I like to take a big unit of men at arms with their starting equipment. Their primary role is to be an anvil for my hammer units. Their secondary role is to be a steadfast breaker. I add a paladin with crown of command (for stubborn), and a damsel with the prayer icon of quenelles (wissans and blessing). The stubborn allows me to form up as a horde without needing to rely on steadfast. Horde formation increases my frontage and number of ranks attacking without compromising their primary role. The damsel adds magic resistance, a ward save and the beast signature spell for increased toughness and strength, all help my role. The formation also allows me to place my damsel on the corner of the front rank, this means she will hurt me less if she blows up, and she will most likely be out of base contact with the enemy, increasing her survivability. The unit champion and paladin are both available to accept challenges to save her as well. My secondary role of steadfast breaker can easily be achieved in combat with a combat reform, or out of combat with swift reform. This can be pretty situational but the option to go ten ranks deep is something I like to have available.

Groups of twenty archers. Their primary role is to shoot the advancing enemy, and with their long range they will be forcing the enemy to move. Their secondary role is flanking. I like to give them flaming attacks and a musician. I've thought about adding banners and most likely will very soon. These guys deploy ten wide and two ranks, this really maximizes their line of stakes and depending on the terrain can be very beneficial to your overall strategy. The flaming attacks are handy when "painting" targets for your trebuchets. I find that units designated to take these guys out are generally small but very mobile. That is where swift reforming into a five wide four deep facing the enemy (with standard) gives you a static 4 combat resolution and you can still stand and shoot. Against small groups of fast cavalry or fliers this can be enough to keep them at bay. Against a bigger combat unit these archers will die fast but then I will be happy my opponent is dedicating so much resources to take them out. A lot of games merge into melee fests quickly, reducing the archer's ability to shoot, and standing around is a waste of points. This is when it's time to swift reform into five by four and flank the enemy. You will want to stick to flanks only as it reduces incoming damage, and certainly avoid anything that will seriously shred you (multiple attacks) as it will end up giving your opponent more combat res than you get from flanking. But I like having a use for my archers after the shooting game is over.

Lance of knights errant. Their primary role is to hammer monsters and other tough targets. Their secondary role is hammering everything else. I give these youngsters the errantry banner, added strength (and fluff) is nice. In order to make them more controllable I add a paladin with a monster slaying set up (their are plenty of examples in the stickies). He will be more suited to sustained killing while the knights add the big punch on the charge. I try to avoid putting important characters in this unit due to the fickle nature of the impetuous. So no generals, damsels or battle standard bearers. Just hard hitting killing action. They will pick out the nasty targets and hit em hard. They can ignore psychology on the charge too which is no where near as good as it used to be but still nice in certain situations (the enemies they will be facing typically cause fear/terror). As a secondary role these guys will act as a standard hammer unit, hitting enemies that are tied up with anvil units, or combo charging with other hammer units.

Lance of knights of the realm. Their primary role is a hammer unit that adds a lot of static combat resolution. Their secondary role keeping my army from routing. This is where I like to put my battle standard bearer. I give him virtue of duty and the enchanted shield. I like the shield on him because it add so much armor given he can't have a shield normally. The unit itself has a war banner, and I like to have twelve total for three ranks. That's seven static combat resolution before charging and flank/rear. The knights themselves can dish out some nice damage on the charge, with the static res you should win the first round. The problem will be breaking steadfast. If my lance's ranks can't break the steadfast after expected kills then I have a good chance of continuing to win combat on resolution alone, giving me time to combat reform my anvil unit into a long ranks deep formation and subsequently breaking the steadfast on the second round. Another option these knights have on the second round when used in combination with a ranks deep anvil is to reform six wide. You will still count ranks from your anvil and you now can use all of your knight's attacks, another benefit is reducing your flank size. The secondary role of this unit is to provide the all important battle standard bearer radius of influence. This unit will go where leadership is needed most in conjunction with performing it's primary role.

Small squadron of pegasus knights. Their primary role is to fly behind enemy lines and take out or tie up artillery and lone wizards. Their secondary role is to rear and flank charge engaged enemies. These guys can take a beating from missile fire with skirmishing, higher toughness and multiple wounds. They get across the battlefield really quick too, they vanguard and fly. At most your opponent should have one turn to shoot at them. These guys achieve their primary goal weather they make it to the enemy or get shot to hell. If my opponent spends all his shooting efforts on my pegs then the rest of my army is free to close the distance. I like to give these guys a musician but no standard bearer. I find that the standard is rarely ever needed to win the combats I put them in, and the risk of breaking and loosing the flag is too many points to justify. The musician helps to rally if needed, and war machines don't have musicians giving the pegs the advantage in the event of a tie. A nice security blanket if you roll badly. The real beauty with these guys is that when they finish performing their primary task they are perfectly lined up to flank and rear charge the enemy.

Five mounted yeomen. Their primary role is to pull enemies out of formation thus exposing flanks. Their secondary role is to harass enemy flanks by shooting and threatening to charge. I give these guys a shield and a musician. The shield is there to add armor so they don't die as quickly to arrow fire. The musician for the rally bonus as these guys will primarily be doing feigned flight maneuvers. The tactic has been explained in many articles. For those unfamiliar you move up and position yourself in a way that when your target charges you his flanks will be exposed to the rest of your army. You opt to flee and if done correctly he will have no one to redirect to and is forced to complete the charge. On the following turn your yeomen will hopefully rally and continue about their business. Since so many people will see this for what it is you will rarely be able to capitalize on it (unless your enemy is frenzied). That brings us to their secondary role of harasser. Stay on the flanks or behind enemy lines and shoot when you can. These guys are also great at chasing down fleeing enemies, or coming in on the flank or rear charge. As a bonus they can even charge and destroy artillery, or at least tie it up a bit.

Lance of grail knights. Their primary role is to bodyguard my prophetess. Their secondary role is to provide magical and flaming melee attacks where needed, in flanks/rear. I go for a musician and standard bearer with banner of eternal flame on these guys. The prophetess is a life wizard to minimize miscasts, regrow units, heal other characters/peg knights, and blast baddies with dwelers below. She also provides my main magic defense with dispel scroll or mirror and level four (magic resistance for the grails as well). The ability to accept challenges with every knight is a big benefit since the only way to kill the prophetess in close combat would be a challenge (she hides in the middle). She also benefits the look out sir rule so she can't be easily kill by missile fire. Aside from just keeping her alive this unit also packs magical and flaming attacks to bear against ethereal or regenerating units. The beauty is their high initiative, they hit with flame before our other units strike, thus removing regeneration.

The king of battle; the trebuchet. Primary role is to decimate elite enemy units and monsters. Secondary role is to decimate everything else. Easily the single most devastating thing in our army, the field trebuchet can put serious hurt on enemies. If facing armies that have really big nasty creatures that my army can't handle I turn to the trebuchet to try can take them out. The center of the blast template is enough to kill almost anything in one hit. If it regenerates just soften it up with flaming arrows first. Another important use is killing enemy elites. They will slice our infantry/cavalry up in melee, but if you can wipe out a lot of them with a trebuchet shot it can equalize the fight before it starts. Added bonuses include; the enemy will pay a lot of points for those elites, this thing will almost always cause a panic check.

Vicar of Dirz

Time for some fresh work! Here is a vicar for my Alchemists of Dirz collection. I finished him yesterday. I started off with a white primer then a citadel codex grey base coat on the cloth and citadel boltgun metal on the metal bits. From there I painted in the model color dark red on the tubes and model color cam. pale violet brown on the leather. I painted up the bone parts on the helmet using my preferred bone method detailed in a previous post. Three washes were added to different parts of the model; citadel badab black, citadel gryphonne sepia and citadel devlan mud. For highlights I used citadel mithril silver on the metal and citadel astronomican grey on the cloth. I watered down the greys quite a bit to try and layer the highlights up. For the goggles I went with the gem technique starting with model color prussian blue. The bottom highlight is model color andrea blue and the top a dot of citadel skull white. At this point the model was basically done but I wanted to add some weathering effects. I tried to age the metals using a heavily watered down wash of citadel tin bitz. I concentrated most of it on the cracks and bolts. It came out pretty light which is fine with me, I didn't want him to be covered in rust. I then drybrushed some model color US tan earth along the bottom of his robe to dirty it up a bit. For his base I went with desert sand and a bit of dead grass. I've recently ordered some weathering powders from forge world, so I may have to come back to this guy when those get here.

Gargoyle

     Found some old pics of a gargoyle I did years ago for confrontation. I'm not sure which brand of paint I used at the time but it looks to be pretty straight forward in style.

     Base coat then wash then drybrush. I do remember trying to add a "magic like" effect with the green where he is coming out of the pillar. Never did finish this guy, didn't even start to base him yet. Oh and his wing broke off and was re-glued on explaining the gap between body and wing. Anyway, I posted this picture because I am excited that someone picked up the license to make Rackham models again. What a fantastic line they used to have.

     When I was getting into confrontation I collected up a fair amount of undead of Acheron and alchemists of dirz models. I drifted out of the hobby for a bit and when I came back to it I was surprised to hear that rackham went out of business. I thought at the time they had one of the best product lines out there. As it turns out they switched from pewter models to plastic pre-painted models. WOW. How could you do that rackham? Anyway, I'm sure they had their reasons, too bad it didn't work out for them. To the new owners of their back catalog; start pumping out some models! That company would be Legacy Miniatures by the way. I applaud you. 22H2YFJ6X7CP

Paladin

A paladin to lead my men at arms regiment. I started this guy by positioning him in the unit he will be leading to see if I may need to bend or alter his stance. Turns out I did need to do something as he was hitting the guy

 behind him in the head with his hammer. As you can see from the miniature bending would look bad so I raised him up and put him at an angle so his hammer clears the man behind him. I sprayed him with white primer and got down to business. I picked white and blue as his main colors so that he would match the men at arms unit he is leading. This means that they are his troops brought to the battle from his domain. I also figured that being a foot regiment these guys would be a sort of engineer corps in my bretonnian army, so I chose the castle as his personal heraldry. The blue I used is model color prussian blue, I like this color a lot, it has a nice even finish and doesn't have a problem going over other colors. The tunic was based with model color sky grey and dirtied up with citadel badab black, then highlighted back up a bit with sky grey and citadel skull white. I wanted it to look a bit dingy, since he fights on foot with men at arms. The armor was done with vallejo liquid silver, washed badab black then highlighted with citadel mithril silver. The helmet was done with vallejo liquid green gold then washed badab blacks and highlighted with citadel burnished gold. His warhammer was done with citadel boltgun metal and washed badab black. For his base I've incorporated some static grass along with model train grass that I think makes good moss type stuff. Overall I like the way it turned out, I wish I had highlighted the gold a little bit more but he stands tall over his man at arms which looks pretty commanding.
And some troops.


Some close-ups.



The men at arms were done with a wide variety of color schemes from dark greens to black to various browns and tans. I wanted them to look like they had a collection of old military uniforms perhaps passed down from older generations. To tie them together as a cohesive unit though I made all of their neck wear prussian blue and of course their shields have all the same heraldry. These guys were very quick to paint using mostly basic techniques to get a tabletop quality finish. All colors were base coated, then washed, then touched up/ highlighted. Real simple. For the bases I wanted a lush green heartland of bretonnia look so I went with my usual model color US tan earth as a base then added a layer of model train grass in a thick amount on top. After that I put a heavy amount of citadel scorched grass to finish it off. When these guys are based side by side on my movement tray it looks like one solid lush green strip of grass. This is also the point when I started magnetizing my bases and building unique movement trays for each unit. Sadly the tray I made these guys only holds a 20 man unit, I have since decided to add 30 more men to this unit. So that tray will likely get very little use. 8th edition warhammer is no place for small units. 

Zombie Dragon conversion

This zombie dragon was entered in the golden bat 2011 conversion contest hosted by carpe noctem and sponsored by mantic games. It took 3rd place.
Here are the pieces used. I had an old kit of a zombie dragon from the 90's that I never did anything with so that made the perfect starting piece. Given the size of todays models I knew right away that this zombie dragon was in need of an upgrade. I wanted a longer neck and tail, so greenstuffing was going to be part of it, and according to the competition I was going to need to do a lot of altering/sculpting to qualify. I picked up some broken coaster bits for the base, I was thinking of having him clinging to the side of a cliff or rocky outcropping. A rider was a must as in the actual game of warhammer you can't just take a zombie dragon by itself and I wanted a model that I can actually use in a game. I found some jeweler chain in my bits box that would make suitable reins. I went with the old red duke vampire model for the rider, since he is kinda rearing back and has a flowing cape behind him, his left arm is also positioned well to look like he has reins bunched up in his hand. For the wire frame I wanted something strong that I could bend into the shape I wanted and have it stay that way, I looked into a lot of different wire type things (copper electrical wire, clothes hanger etc.). I settled on a piece of wire clipped from a whisk from the kitchen. It matched my criteria; strong but just flexible enough to get the shape I wanted, and it just happened to be the same diameter as the largest bit in my hand drill.

Work in progress. Here you can see I've pinned the wire frame for the neck and tail and positioned the body to be climbing up one side of the rocky outcropping. The meat of the tail has been sculpted as well as a few of the larger scales on the ridge. I decided to put a casualty on the base at this point and found a perfect model for it in my bits box. I was some (reaper I think) monk model that would make a convincing barbarian if lying face down. I ripped one of his arms off and greenstuffed a bit of guts and gore coming out of his underside. I put and old bow in his hand and and arrow in the other with a quiver not too far off. I then added three arrows the the zombie dragons torso. The arrows are in a pretty tight shot group, heh the barbarian was a good shot but not smart enough to realize shooting a zombie in the heart has no effect.

On this side you can see where the dragon is gripping onto the side of the rocks, I really like the way the position turned out, I was able to fill in under his left front claw with small bits of cork and then fill in between all of his toes with balast that a friend gave me to use as sand. All of his claws are now seamless on the rocks.

Some finished pre-paint shots. Here the zombie dragon conversion is done. The neck and tail were finished, the end of the tail was popped on and the scales were all added. I did the scales by rolling greenstuff into a long strand and taking a tiny piece of it at a time, rolling it into a ball and pressing it on with a sculpting tool. It took forever but I think it was worth it.


Here are a couple shots with the rider attached. Adding the rider was pretty easy since the red duke miniature was already positioned the way I wanted it to be. I just greenstuffed a strap to his hand and glued the chain to the zombie dragons head. The cape was slightly bent upward to give more motion to the model. 


And a shot after some primer. Here is where the model is at currently. I removed the rider and chain for painting but now I may make some changes. The guys on carpe noctem have given a couple of suggestions that I think I must do. First is to get rid of the jeweler chain in favor of a regular looking chain. Makes sense why would this guy have a giant necklace to hold his dragon with? The other thing is the wing size, after the neck and tail enlargement the wings are starting to look pretty small. Not to mention games workshop just released a new zombie dragon model with gigantic wings. This thing will look a little small next to it. I'm open for any suggestions on how to make the wings bigger. I'm thinking maybe extend them with cardstock or something similar. Or perhaps finding new wings altogether.

That's where it's at right now. Sadly no paint yet.

Wolves

My direwolves and doomwolf. I still need to get better pics of these.


So I painted these guys years ago but never finished them. The paint job itself was real simple, black, grey, white, bone, and a little purple. I started using some extra broken bits of cork coasters to make rocks on the bases, sadly I only put one on this unit. I went with all dead grass on these guys but later decided to add tufts of scorched grass to create some more depth and to hopefully match the vargulf a little better. One of the best ways to tie an army together theme wise I think is giving the bases a unified look. So after a little altering they should match a bit more.